Las Vegas – The man who plowed his car into a crowded Las Vegas strip sidewalk in September 2005, killing Hollister resident Gordon Kusayanagi and two others, pleaded guilty but mentally ill this week.
Stephen M. Ressa, 29, faces life in prison on three counts of first-degree murder and 11 counts each of attempted murder and battery with a deadly weapon in connection with the Sept. 21, 2005 crash on a sidewalk in front of the Paris and Bally’s hotel-casinos.
Ressa killed three people and injured 11 others after assaulting his mother and stealing her car in Rialta, Calif., authorities said. He was scheduled to go to trial Oct. 16.
Kusayanagi, 52, at the time was on vacation in Las Vegas with his wife, Stephanie Kusayanagi, and two best friends. The group had been headed to a show when Ressa intentionally drove his car into the crowd.
Stephanie Kusayanagi was in Las Vegas on Monday with Gordon’s parents, his best friend, her two sisters and their daughter to hear Ressa’s plea. More than two years after his death, the Kusayanagis continue to struggle.
“Basically I’ve spent two years keeping myself and my family together,” Stephanie Kusayanagi said.
In the two years since her husband’s death, Kusayanagi has moved back to Gilroy, where she has started a memorial called the Gordon Rocks Foundation providing local high school students with scholarships. The couple had lived in Gilroy for 25 years before moving to Hollister eight years ago.
Aside from starting the scholarship fund, Kusayanagi said she would like to see changes on the Las Vegas strip, an area that, in the wake of her husband’s death, she considers dangerous. She believes the city should close the strip to traffic, creating a pedestrian mall like the old Fremont Street, she said.
The family will be in court again Nov. 9 when Ressa is sentenced and members will give victim statements, Kusayanagi said.
“It’s the only voice we get during the whole process,” she said.
Ressa’s attorney, Joseph Abood, told the Associated Press the plea deal was made with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty. His client will likely be sentenced to life in prison but will receive mental health treatment while incarcerated, Abood said.
On Monday, a new Nevada state law took effect allowing Ressa to make the guilty but mentally ill plea.
Shortly after the crash, Ressa told police he drove into the crowd because pedestrians were staring at him “like demons” and concealing weapons.
Ressa also had been charged with steering the car toward a bus stop in what a prosecutor called a “dry run” minutes before the deadly crash. He also was accused of stabbing a jail guard in the neck with a pencil.
Ressa was deemed competent for trial last year after court-ordered treatment at a state mental facility for the criminally insane in Sparks, Nev. Ressa is being held at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas, Nev. without bail.
Born and raised in Gilroy, Gordon Kusayanagi had lived in Hollister for about six years at the time of his passing. After working for IBM, he and his wife operated Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in Monterey. His employees there described him as a great boss and a quiet, kind person.
The weekend before his death, Kusayanagi had played a gig with his band “Ten ’til Two” at the Cantina in Tres Pinos. He played guitar and keyboard for the rock cover band, which performed throughout the Central Coast.
He was survived by his two parents, his wife, his two children and three grandchildren.
In addition to Kusayanagi, Mark Modaressi, 26, of Irvine, Calif., and Richard Bradford, 60, of Renton, Wash., were killed.
